Turbo-pump



June 16, 1931. v, sc R 1,810,297

TURBO PUMP Filed 001;. 51, 1925 J 1?!- 1 N VEN TOR.

V/crop 5 c I'll. EYEE ATTORNEY.

Patented June 16,1931- NI ran STATES PATENT OFFICE" VICTOR SuCIIILE'YER, OI ANDERSON, INDIANA, ASSIGNOR TO DEAN HILL PUMZP COE- IPANY, OF ANDERSON, INDIANA, A CORPORATION OF INDIANA.

TURBO-PUMP Application filed October 31, 1925. Serial No. 68,080.

It is the object of my invention to produce a direct-drive turbine-pump unit having a single carrying bearing; to make such single bearing of such turbine-pump unit capable of sustaining thrusts in either direction; to produce in such 'a turbine-pump unit a floatation or equalizing effect which relieves the thrust on the bearing in either direction; to construct the unit so that in both the turbine and the pump the removal, repair, and replacement of the rotating elements, which are the seat of most troubles that arise, and of other parts as well,'may be made with maximum facility; to permit free thermal expansion and contraction at both ends of the complete rotating element of the turbineump unit; to provide an effective construction for both preheating the pump unit and preventing freezing therein; to make all the stuffing boxes subject only to low pressure; to provide anefiective lubrication for the bearing in such unit; and in general to simplify and improve the construction of directdrive turbine-pump units, with especial reference to such units used as feed-water pumps, as for steam locomotives and marine and stationary boilers.

In carrying out my invention, I mount a turbine rotor and a centrifugal-pump runner at opposite ends of a shaft, desirably at the upper and lower ends respectively of a vertical shaft, and carry such shaft by a single bearing located at an intermediate point of the shaft. This bearing is desirably capable of taking thrusts in both directions, as by being a two-series ball-bearing of suitable construction and mounting; and I provide this bearing with a special self-lubricating construction. The shaft has no out board bearings beyond the turbine rotor and the pump runner; and it is free to expand and contract at both ends, as uponchanges in tem rature of the fluids passing through the tur inc and the pump respectively. The shaft has stufiing boxes at intermediate points between the turbine rotor and the pump runner respectively and the supporting bearing; and the pump runner itself may have suitable sealing surwith corresponding surfaces co-operating stator. Both the turbine faces in the pump and the pump are arranged to receive their supplies of fluid from above; which has several advantages, in that it produces a lifting tendency at the pump and therefore upon the complete rotating element, makes it possibleto obtain great compactness, makes it ibleto obtain access to the rotating elements of both the pump and the turbine without disturbing the relatively large low-pressure connections, and makes the stufiing boxes subject only to low pressures. The lifting tendency is controlled by providing suitable relations between the exposed areas of the upper and lower sides of the pump runner, to get any desired floatation or equalizing ef-" feet between the weight of the rotating element and the thrust-components in opposite directions.

The accompanying drawings illustrate my invention: Fig. 1 is a vertical central section through a turbine-pump unit constructed in accordance with my invention, the particular design shown being especially for use as a locomotive boiler-feed pump; and Fig. 2 is a horizontal section substantially on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1.

v The combined turbine-pump unit con structed in accordance with my invention has a single carrying shaft 10, ordinarily and preferably a vertical shaft, which at its upper end carries a turbine rotor 11 and at its lower end carries a pump runner 12. These are suitably attached to the shaft ends and held on by keys 13 and attaching nuts 14, thelatter being received on reduced threaded end portions of the shaft and serving to clamp the turbine rotor and pump runner respectively against suitable shoulders on the shaft. There are no out board bearings for the shaft 10, beyond the turbine rotor and the pump runner; but such shaft is carried by a single bearing 15 located at an intermediate point thereof. This bearing 15 is desirably a ball hearing with two rows of balls 16 and 17,

both working in an inner race 18 clamped on the shaft 10, but desirably Working in'separ rate outer races 19 and 20 designed to take of the balls 16 and 17 takes thrust at any one time, and the other set then acts as a radial bearing to steady the shaft. The outer races 19 and 20 are mounted in a suitable housing 21 fastened to an inwardly projecting ledge 22 from the frame 23 of the machine; and is over an oil reservoir 24 which is .kept filled with oil and from which oil is circulated continuously between the inner and outer races over the balls of the bearing.

While this oil circulation may be obtained in various ways, I show it as obtained by a cup-shaped member 25 fast on the shaft 10 and having an outwardly projecting circumferential flange 26 at its lower end, which flange dips in the oil in the reservoir 24 and throws such oil outward by centrifugal force. A cup 27 is located in the oil reservoir in position to receive some of the oil thrown outward by the flange 26; and this cup communicates by an elbow 28 with a vertical passage 29 extending up through the housing 21 and discharging above such housing into a radial groove 29 feeding a circumferential groove 30provided in the under face of a bearing-cap 31 and opening into the space between the inner and outer races of thebearing. The cup 27 is conveniently of the same shape as the nozzle of the steam turbine, as that is found to be satisfactory in operation. The oil forced up through the passage 29 flows down over the balls 16 and 17 and drops back into the oil reservoir 24.

If desired, the oil reservoir 24 may be surrounded, by a jacket-passage 35, which may be supplied with cooling water to keep the oil cool, or with steam to keep'the oil fluid, as required by the operating eonditions encountered.

The turbine rotor 11 forms part of a steam turbine of any suitable construction. '.AS shown, such turbine has a steam nozzle 40 which discharges downward on to the blades 41 of the turbine rotor; and the steam after passing once through such blades passes into a return nozzle 42 which re-discharges the steam upward against the blades 41. This re-entrant type of turbine is indicated merely by way of example, as my invention is independent of any particular type of turbine. The steam after twice passing the blades 41 enters the exhaust chamber 43, whence it escapes through the steam-exhaust passage 44. This steam-exhaust passage is of relatively large size, 'as compared with the steam-supply passage 45 by which the steam is supplied to the nozzle stand 46 supporting the nozzle 40; and for facilitating inspection, re-

pair, and replacement, the nozzle stand 46 is hung from the separate top 47 of the turbine casing, while the steam-exhaust connection is made through the side walls 48 of such turbine casing, so that the rotor 11 may be inspected, repaired, removed, or replaced by merely removing the top 47 and its "carried parts without disturbing the larger and more cumbersome steam-exhaust or low-pressure and is provided around such shaft with a stufiing box 51 to hold the steam within the turbine from escaping downward around the shaft. \Vhile this stufiing box undoubtedly serves to steady the upper end of the shaft, it is not a bearing, This stufling box 51 is between the bearing 15 and the turbine-rotor 11; and it is subject only to the relatively low pressure of the exhaust steam.

There is a similar stufling box 55 below the bearing 15, between such bearing and the pump runner 12; and it serves to steady the lower end of the shaft 10, although it also is not a bearing. This stuffing box 55 is mounted in across-web 56 which forms the top -of the pump.

The web 56 is'shaped to provide the pumpinlet passage 60, which leads to an opening 60 around the shaft directly above the pump runner 12, so that such pump runner receives water from above. In consequence, the stuffing box 55 is subject only to the low pressure of the suction side of the pump.

The pump is a centrifugal pump, the general details of which are not involved here, and acts to throw the water outward by centrifugal force through diffusers 61 into a volute receiving chamber 62 of suitable construction; from which volute chamber the water is discharged through a discharge passage 63 to the desired point.

The volute chamber 62 may be formed in the bottom-cap 64 of the pump, so that by removing su'ch bottom-cap the pump runner is made accessible for inspection, repair, removal, and replacement, without disturbing the larger and more cumbersome suction connection through the side walls of the pump casing above the pump runner.

The pump runner 12 has wearing or sealing rings 66 and 67 on its upper and lower sides, which rings rotate with it and are received in annular grooves in co-operating wearing or sealing rings 68 and 69 mounted in the stator of the pump. The diameters of the sealingrings 66 and 67 may have any desired relation, to produce any desired relation between the areas of the upper surface '70 and of the lower surface 71 of the runner outward from such rings, and therefore roduce an desired resultant thrust on the s aft 10 by the reactionof the water under pressure on such surfaces. Such resultant is in proportion to the algebraic sum of such areas, one being considered as positive and the other negative; and while this resultant may be made anything desired, the area of the surface is shown as slightly greater than the area of the surface 71, so that the resultant pressure on such two areas .is slightly Jwnward, to compensate for the lifting =ndency from having the inlet to the pump inner on the upper side of such runner. uch lifting tendency is further reduced by roviding holes 72 through the pump runner 3 near its hub, to connect the inlet passage and opening to a chamber 73 provided 1 the bottom-cap 64 below the center of the amp I'l1I1I18I. By properly proportioning 1e surfaces and 71 in relation to the eight of the rotating element and to the :action of the steam on the turbine rotor l, it is possible to get an "desired flotation equalizing effect; an any unbalanced IIIISt, whether intentional or accidental, is lken by the balls 16 and 17 of the bearing. a the construction shown, the resultant irust of all the components involved is ightly downward, which I deem desirable. My turbine-pump unit is especially de- Lgned as a boiler-feed pump, as for locoiotives and for marine and stationary boilrs; and so it may be exposed to the wide amperature variations which a locomotive ucounters. As these variations include temeratures below freezing, it is at times nec- I ssary to heat the pump to keep the water -'ithin it from freezing. To this end I proide steam-jacket passages and 81 in the sator of the pump above and below the pump unner 12. The steam is supplied to the )wer steam-j acket passage 81 through an in- :t 82, and the water of condensation may be rained from such steam-jacket passage 81 hrough an outlet opening 83. The steam is applied to the upper steam-j acket assage 0, and water of condensation is rained rom such upper steam-j acket passage, by toss-connecting passages 84 which extend up hrough the diifusers 61.

,The two ends of the shaft 10 may freely ontract and expand separately as required [y the temperatures of the. fluids passing vrough the pump and the turbine r 'ecively, because the ends of such shaft ari free nd at all times out of contact with the top nd bottom caps 47 and 64.

I claim as my invention 1. A turbine-pump unit, comprising a verical shaft, a turbine having a rotor mounted through which the runner discharges and.

also having steam-j acket chambers located on both axial sides of said runner and interconnected by passages extending through such diffusers.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand at Indianapolis, Indiana, this 29th day of October, A. D. one thousand nine hundred and twenty-five. a

VICTOR SCHLEYER.

n the upper end of said shaft, a centrifugal" ump having a runner mounted on the lower ad of said shaft, and bearingmeans for said iaft, said pump being provided with difusers through which the pump runner disdarges and also with steam-j acket chambers mated above and below such pump runner ud interconnected by passages extending irough such diffusers.

2. A. turbine-pump unit, comprisin a 13ft, a turbine having a rotor mounte on ne end of said shaft, a centrifugal pump aving a runner mounted on the other end f said shaft, and bearing means for said 

